Tuesday Tidbits - Day 2 of 3: Not Quite There Yet Necklaces

Right now what I have is a choker length necklace, simply because I only had enough of the silver open 'cage' beads to go this far. While I could stop here and say 'done', there's a nagging voice in the back of my mind whispering to me that it's not. Unfortunately, what Nagging Voice neglects to volunteer, is what else I should do. That's Nagging Voices for you - all critique, no ideas. I am trying to encourage Nagging Voice's shy cousin, Flash of Inspiration, to step up and pitch some ideas. I'd be satisfied if the other cousin, Impatient to Move on to the Next Thing would just chase off the other two. I'm considering options I've come up with no thanks to the crowd in the back of my mind - putting something inside the open bead cages, maybe? Adding drops to hang from the jump rings is another idea, but it's not at the top of the list.

While the voices in my head are busy (or, perhaps, asleep) I'll just babble a bit about the beads I've used.The black bead in the necklace is an interestingly faceted piece of pressed jet black Czech glass from the Halcraft Beads Bead Gallery collection at Michael's. By the way, I went to the Halcraft site to see if I could find the bead and the site is ponderously flash-heavy. You can't link to one particular thing, even if you find it.

On top of that, each page (and there are 4 in the 'glass beads' section once you finally get that page loaded) takes forever to load. Well, ok, 30 seconds, but that's forever in internet time. They need to fire their web-designer. While I've given you the link, I wouldn't recommend a visit unless you have the patience of a saint. Do not go there if you have a slow connection.

Since after my fruitless visit to the Halcraft site I couldn't find an example of the bead to show you, I'll have to try and describe it - plus if you click the picture above you might be able to see enough detail to get the idea.

The facets on the bead are long thin stripes cut or pressed into the bead at an angle from top right to bottom left, the shape of the bead is oval viewed from the top and the center of the bead is thicker than the sides. There's a kind of wavy look to the shape if viewed from the sides as well. It's a pretty interesting bead, approximately 10mmx14mm in size.

The silver cage beads are made up of strips of silver plated metal with a braided, patinaed pattern on them. There's a pin with looped ends through it and each end comes already connected to a jump ring. Made assembly much easier. They're from Sterling Effects which I found in quantity at A.C. Moore last winter when I was in Fayetteville, N.C. Haven't seen them around here anywhere, though.

Last night my Artbeads package arrived - I used the 20% savings offer available over Labor Day weekend to really stock up on different sizes colors and shapes of CRYSTALLIZED™ – Swarovski Elements (many of which you can still get for 15% off until the 22nd at Artbead's "Crazy for CRYSTALLIZED sale) and bead caps. I've quite a nice assortment to work with and since I really need to beef up my inventory of things like earrings and bracelets for the show in November, I felt it was a good use of the opportunity.

Tomorrow you get Day 3 of 3 - and I have made it to version 2 of this one, you get to see some pictures of the changes on this one.

See you then!

Supplier Sales Saturday - Hurry Before They End!

Vintage image courtesy of The Graphics Fairy

I received an email the other day from the lovely Duchess at Artbeads (she's their community manager and provides info to the Blogging for Beads team) about their sale this weekend:

... Artbeads is launching its biggest sale ever! This is the largest discount I have ever seen on our entire inventory of beautiful and amazing products. You can even save 20% off by signing up for our newsletter.*

Make sure to take advantage of this sale and pick up something special for yourself, that special gift you’ve been planning for Christmas or just stock up on essentials.

Thank you for again for being a part of our Artbeads blogging community and have a Great Labor Day Weekend!

*Sign up for Artbeads.com newsletter by clicking *here*

Sale ends Tuesday the 8th at 9am Pacific. Don't miss out.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/miranda310/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Other Great Sales:

• Alpha Stamps if you're doing mixed media you *must* visit this site.


• Consumer Crafts is having a scrapbooking sale, ends Sept 15th. Use the promocode RA8B6LQ and receive 15% off from their entire Scrapbooking category.


• Rings & Things has CRYSTALLIZED™ – Swarovski Elements in their close-outs section, lots of great buys at clearance prices of 25 to 75% off


• Tons of cool sale beads at The Beadin' Path - including vintage Lucite and cast pewter.

What are your favorite on line shops? Comment with a link and I'll check them for next week's post!

Hope you'll return for tomorrow's Weekly Wandering Around the Beadosphere, too.

This One's Just Going to be Random...

It's the end of a fairly busy week for me and I'm a bit tired tonight. Didn't list anything for my 'list 1 item a night on Art Fire' goal, didn't work on any new jewelry. As soon as I get this finished, I'm curling up in bed with a book.

But - here are a couple things I thought were worth sharing with you:

I was one of the folk who left a product review at Rings & Things and got drawn for a gift certificate prize. I'm going to peruse my 'Wish List' and make some purchases this weekend. The appropriate sound effect is "squee!"

Speaking of Rings & Things, I took Russ Troll to work a while ago, and I didn't share those pictures here, so why not take the opportunity now? Can't think of a good reason - click to enlarge, please!

Russ Finds Some Minerals, Ponders the IP Phone, Between the Giant Eggs

Got this from Duchess at Artbeads in my email today:

The "Muse" is Revealed! At the "BIG REVEAL" you'll also see what design won the Grand Prize, 2nd Place, 3rd Place and each of the 10 Category Prizes. In fact, the entire gallery! See all the winners and entrants in Scarlett Lanson's exciting international jewelry design contest.

We at Artbeads want to thank everyone for supporting this wonderful, creative event and look forward to Use the Muse III!

Blanche from Sha-sha Handcrafted Jewelry Blog posted her lovely entry to The Muse II, so do be sure to take a look and leave her a comment, too.

Are you going to enter Muse III? You can enter right now! I'm very tempted because of all the copper I see in the picture and I love making jewelry with copper.

Update: Promoted from comments - Janeen's Muse II entry - lovely! Do also check hers out! If anyone else leaves a link to theirs in comments, I'll definitely add them here.

Remember my Sunflower Starry Night necklace with the cool vintage Lucite beads from The Beadin' Path? Well, Tish wanted one of her own, so I said I'd make it. And now, the bead is in! This weekend I'll get to work on the necklace. Along with the bead came the cutest gifts - I hope I can do them justice, they're just adorable. Thank you, Patti Stoll!

Speaking of Tish, I will soon be the proud owner of these earrings, featured in a spiffy tutorial.

Lastly, I needed to re-supply some of my Accessories Susan vintage style filigree, bead caps and chain because I have a convention coming up to prepare for and I think that Steampunk style will sell well. The order came in on Wednesday and I got a few new things as well, can't wait to share some of the ideas (assuming I can get them to work) I have. I really love her site, lots of great ideas and a huge variety of settings, findings and just cool stuff, to choose from.

Have a fun Friday, a great weekend and don't forget to visit Sunday to Wander Around the Beadosphere with me!

Thursday Feature: Reviews & Interviews - Steve Groenier of Artbeads

Today I present an interview of Steve Gronier, VP of Search Marketing and Customer Service at Artbeads.

I'm so very honored to be part of Artbead's Blogging for Beaders program for almost a year now. While I knew that some of the 'stars' of the beading world did designs for places like Beadalon, Soft Flex, and other suppliers, I'd not imagined that a relative newbie like myself could have this kind of opportunity.

Artbeads was the first to reach out to me and that opened many new horizons. It gave me a chance to explore new materials I might not have thought about purchasing, and provided me a great deal of inspiration via the others in the program whose blogs I now follow. It really was a turning point in my blogging and the start of making jewelry become more than just a hobby for me.

I want to take this opportunity to thank Steve, the creator of, and Duchess, the current community manager for the program, for their support of my efforts and great partnership.

Now, let's learn more about Steve!

Dawno: Your bio on Twitter says "I enjoy amazing beadwork and beaded jewelry, collecting cool beads..." Is this something you became interested in because of Artbeads or is there a story you can share behind it?

Steve: I’ve always admired beaded art that I’ve seen in various galleries or from independent artists at summer fairs and music festivals. But, I had no idea how much I was missing until I started working for Artbeads. I’m still overwhelmed by how many beautiful beads I’ve seen from all over the world and made from so many different types of materials.

Dawno: You've had an interesting career in varied industries - I noted on your LinkedIn profile that you've been with Disney & a wireless company, among others, and now Artbeads.com. What is the common thread that ties these together and what did you learn from your past roles that has helped you be successful in your current role?

Steve: What ties these all together is my work in online marketing and advertising. For the past 13 years, I have been focused on helping companies market online. I think what has helped me grow most in my career is having a passion for learning new things, being creative and taking action. Online marketing is always changing and you’ve got to stay on top of it to get the best results.

Dawno: Do you think businesses, like Artbeads, can improve the customer experience by using social media? How would that work?

Steve: Absolutely! In any business it’s critical to listen to your customers and build strong relationships. Social media has enabled us stay more connected with our customers and listen to what they want and what they don’t want. It’s also allowing our customers to be better connected with each other. Buying beads and jewelry supplies online can be very confusing for people. The quality of products, service and pricing can vary by a large degree. If a supplier fails in any of these areas, people talk. I think this has worked to our advantage because we do put so much time into making sure our products are of the best quality and that our customers are 100% happy no matter what.

Dawno: Do you think independent artisans can/should leverage social media better? How do you think building community or being part of the conversation is important to that.

Steve: I think social media is helping independent artisans get their work in front of more people. Usually when you see or buy something that you’re excited about, you want to tell others and show it off. I see this process happening more and more on social media sites as photos are taken with cell phones and posted to Facebook with the links to an artists site. When artists stay in touch with their fans through social media they increase the chances that word about their work will spread. I would definitely recommend all artisans have a Facebook profile or fan page and a Twitter account and promote those anywhere they can - websites, email, business cards, etc.

Dawno: Should the independent artisan perhaps brand themselves (I'm thinking of Margot Potter, who does this very well) to be more successful in their niche?

Steve: It’s important for people to easily understand what it is that you do, what you stand for and then to be able to connect that with your name. Part of this means carving out that niche for yourself. The other is creating a name for yourself. For jewelry designers, this brand image could be their personal name or a business name. Margot’s got a bit of both going on. She does a great job of promoting her name and explaining what she is about with her tagline, “The Impatient Crafter” which by itself is presented as a brand. She’s then used the “Impatient” idea in her books with titles like “The Impatient Beader.” All of this branding works to help make you more memorable, findable, shareable. So yes, brand yourself.

Dawno: What types of things is Artbeads doing to support independent artisan jewelry designers?

Steve: Independent jewelry designers are really our core customer at Artbeads.com so on a broad level everything we do from products we purchase to our wholesale volume discounts is designed around their needs. Something new that we recently created is a section on our site called Sellers’ Secrets to provide resources that help jewelry designers grow a successful business. It includes things like tips for preparing for the holidays, pricing your jewelry and discounts on services. To get this started we’ve partnered with Ruby Lane who has lots of experience working with artisan jewelry designers.

Another thing we have done is put even more focus on our Learning Center which provides inspiration and education. This section has been given a complete facelift recently and now includes over 500 jewelry design ideas, ideas for upcoming events, handy jewelry making tips and video tutorials.

Something else that’s exciting is to see how the Artbeads.com Facebook fan page has become such a great gathering place for jewelry designers to connect and share ideas. We now have over 7,000 fans posting comments on everything such as how they get inspired, favorite findings, tips on selling jewelry, etc. They also share a bunch of their jewelry photos and links to their Etsy shops and websites. It’s great fun.

Again, thank you, Steve, for taking the time to answer the questions and provide your insights. You can follow Artbeads and Steve on Twitter @Artbeads @BeadGuy.



This post sponsored by:

Dawno

Buy Handmade

Mid-Week Mutterings - Beadalon CZ-Gem Dropz Necklace

I had the opportunity a while back to make the acquaintance of a Beadalon rep and mentioned how interesting I thought their CZ-Gem Dropz were but that my local stores didn't carry them. He kindly offered to send me some samples, and today I'm thrilled to talk about a necklace I just finished using them.

I received purple two hole 4mm Dropz, round and square shapes, the specially sized light-weight jump rings made for working with the drops by Beadalon, and decided to match them up with the last bits of sterling granulated diamond curb-chain I've used in other jewelry, purchased from Artbeads. The focal is a checkerboard amethyst from Fire Mountain Gems on a thin gauge sterling headpin from Artbeads.

I love the rich, deep purple of these CZ-Gem Dropz. They have two holes drilled front to back for the jump rings to go through, then you can attach them to what ever findings you choose - I was looking for something that, to my eye, suited the delicate look and size and the curb chain kind of jumped out at me.

I had some challenges with a couple of the drops, cracked one trying to get a jump ring in. The majority of them worked perfectly though. I found the Beadalon light weight jump rings very easy to work and they closed up very well, the cuts were flush and clean.

The Dropz I received are cut so the bottom half is faceted to a point, so I think they're going to scratch a bit as a necklace, so these probably do work best in earrings, but we'll see.

I was a bit disappointed with the checkerboard cut amethyst from Fire Mountain - these are currently listed at over $40 a set (you get three - and the price does go down to $36 with Fire Mountain's assortable savings if you've purchased 14 other items) and the holes were poorly drilled - my finest gauge head pin would not go all the way through two of them and I wouldn't like to risk trying to use a reamer to enlarge the hole.

I ended up using one of the smaller pair of the set because that's the only one I could get the head pin through. The stone itself is a nice purple and the checkerboard facets are lovely. The stones have some pretty significant visible flaws inside, too, which kind of spoils the look if held up to the light. I think it will be ok against clothing.

See you tomorrow!

Dawno's Friday Picks - Artbeads

Last week I shared a 'Fresh Pick' using the feature on Lima Beads. This week I created a mosaic using the online tool, Mosaic Maker and a wish list of beads, chain, findings, centering around a beautiful painted onyx bead that's on sale right now.

Upper row from left to right: 19x25mm Oval Black Onyx Pink Ornament , CRYSTALLIZED™ 5000 6mm Faceted Round Indian Pink , CRYSTALLIZED™ 5810 6mm Round Pearl Mystic Black, CRYSTALLIZED™ RDS 6mm Silver-Plated Roundelle Jet.
Bottom row from left to right: CRYSTALLIZED™ 5040 8mm Faceted Roundelle Indian Pink, Sterling 6mm Flower Petal Outline Beadcap, 6mm Bright Sterling Silver Roundel, 090 DC Long Rollo Chain.

What I'd like to create with these is a multi-strand necklace with the bead and silver components strung in one strand and then create a second strand with the rollo chain, probably with some bead dangles hanging from it. I really need to get some colored pencils to draw a sketch... I'm really liking this idea!

So what do you think about using the Mosaic tool for spurring creativity? I didn't have anything in mind when I started browsing Artbeads and collecting the pictures for the mosaic, now I have one and a shopping list.

Next week, another one of my favorite suppliers will be featured!

Tuesday Tidbits - Put on Your Sunglasses!

This is probably the most "glam" piece I've ever attempted. I was dazzled by some chessboard Swarovski rhinestones i saw on Artbeads and decided to grab them back when they were having a great sale. I'd also previously acquired oval sterling jump rings, amazonite cubes (not in stock) and some non-tarnish silver Artistic wire from them. I bought the aqua Swarovski to go with those amazonite cubes as I had a design idea in mind.

Late last week as I was linking together the amazonite bits to the Swarovski's, I realized I needed sterling chain, so I got that as well, this time using one of their coupons to get a bit of savings - be sure you either sign up for their newsletter or check the coupon specials (there's a link on their hone page) before finalizing your order!

Wave the magic wand (well, really work for days on it) and create version 1.

Not exactly there, though, but I took a picture so you could see the changes. A couple hours later, version 2:

Liking version 2 better, so far. Will put aside for a while before deciding if it's done.

Update!

I just couldn't stop fiddling - made it a 3 layer necklace by adding satin ribbon tie-back. Added advantage that length becomes more adjustable. Pondering embellishment to ribbon...

Speaking of Artbeads - if you're on Twitter, don't forget to do the "Tweet Your Prize" contests! Today's ends at 9 a.m. Pacific but perhaps there will be another one up later this week, so check that link daily!

Midweek Mutterings - Challenges and Contests!

New monthly challenge is up at Art Bead Scene - Farbstudie Quadrate (Color Study of Squares) by Wassily Kandinsky. This is an abstract work, with so many colors to work from, it should be a fun challenge. I hope you'll participate. (UPDATE: here are the prizes)

The May Rings & Things raffle was won by commenters joia & Beadsophy. There will be a June contest announced today (they say it will be "a very exciting contest").

Speaking of contests, I got an email from Artbeads today about the Use the Muse II beading design contest which they asked me to share it with you, as they are sponsoring it.

I wanted to drop you a quick note to let you know that Artbeads is sponsoring the Use the Muse II beading design contest. We think this is a fabulously fun competition that you and your blog readers would enjoy.

What makes this so much fun is that every entrant receives the same assortment of components including beads, crystals, pearls, silk and seed beads plus a mystery muse component that they must keep secret until the “BIG REVEAL.” At that time, everyone gets to see what the muse is and photos of what the entrants designed with it.

The contest was created by Scarlett Lanson who has a regular column in Beadwork magazine and has won some prestigious contests herself. She placed first in the 2009 KGI Wordwide Design Contest and fourth place in the 2007 Swarovski “Create Your Style” competition. Scarlett’s goal was to create a competition for all types of beaders; stringers, bead weavers, and embroiderers, that had a shortened timeline and a big payoff. There are some very nice prizes including prizes for first through third place and ten category prizes. The cost for the entry kit is a very reasonable $30 plus $5 for shipping in the US and $10 for international entrants.

Scarlett is also holding a weekly giveaway just for bloggers who help promote the contest. To learn more and find out what the prize is for this week visit:
www.thebeadersmuse.com/blogger-rewards/

One important thing to note is that there are a limited number of kits available and they will likely be gone before the order deadline of June 27. So, if this sounds like something you would like to do or blog about please keep this in mind. Plus, the sooner you sign up, the more time you will have to work on your design before the July 18th entry deadline.

To learn more and check out what happened in the first Use the Muse II contest, visit Scarlett’s blog here:www.thebeadersmuse.com/use-the-muse-contest2.

UPDATE: just received this additional info from Artbeads - you can be entered to win a special prize if you blog about the contest:

I am excited to see the Use the Muse II contest kick off and am looking forward to seeing the new designs from all the entrants. Please be aware if you are entering the Blogger Rewards contest on the Use the Muse site you would need to have your blog posted no later than Friday June 5th to be eligible for this weeks prize, you will also need to contact Scarlett by email to inform her that you want her to track your traffic from your blog post. For info on the Blogger Rewards contest please follow the below link:

http://www.thebeadersmuse.com/blogger-rewards/

Good luck to the entrants!

Tomorrow is my Thursday Feature: Reviews and Interviews - please come back!

Really Short Post for Today

Well, this is going to be a very short post - had a busy day and not much time for either beading or writing. I think I more than made up for it with the length of yesterday's how-to, though.

I saw that Art Bead Scene's May Challenge is Monet's "Waterlilies". I love that painting. Was very fortunate to see it at an Impressionist exhibition in Los Angeles back in the mid-80's and brought home a number of museum exhibition posters featuring Monet works.

If you find yourself inspired to create something that includes art beads you should consider entering the contest - the prizes this month are wonderful as well.

I've been doing a little of this and a little of that lately. I posted three new lanyards on Etsy, cute floral ones great for eyeglasses,

Finally, here's a new piece I finished last night with the angelite stone that I used with the Swarovski pearls last week. There are sterling silver Bali Swirl bead caps from Artbeads, sterling silver beads and Jablonex Czech glass "black diamond" bicones in the design.

(click for detail)

Hope your Wednesday goes well! See you tomorrow.

More New Stuff In Today's Mail & A New Steampunk-ish Pendant

My mailbox brought more joy today. I needed some extra stuff for BayCon (and the other cons I hope to be attending) and the last of it (yesterday's haul was part 1) came today - as well as the Swarovski Tahitian Look pearls from the dollar sale at Artbeads, which I mentioned a few days ago. I've left a review of these pearls on the Artbeads site as well; I'm very pleased with my purchases!

Speaking of which - here's the bracelet I made using the pearls and gold filled beads, shown with my earrings and necklace (the ones my husband bought for me):

The other package was from Accessories Susan, and I made a pendant base awhile ago with some of the oxidized brass she offers on her site. This evening I've added some additional bits and pieces to complete the pendant.

The stamped brass lady's hand and watch pieces are from a wonderfully eclectic assortment pack I got from Melanie at her Etsy Steampunk Supply shop, the "gem" is recycled from an old piece of costume jewelry I have. It needs a chain, which I may embellish with tiny light sapphire faceted Czech glass beads. This picture definitely needs to be clicked on for the details. There's a tiny steel blue minute hand attached to the big gear, the "gem" is set in a smaller gear.

Last night I submitted a necklace with those emerald green Swarovski crystals I showed in yesterday's post, to the Bead Star competition in the crystals category. My friend Lori Basiewicz helped me name it "Emerald Rain". I'd love to show you a picture, but just in case it makes it to the competition, I'm going to keep it off the web for now. I still need to make something for my SIL's birthday with the rest of them...and they'll probably show up late now, since her birthday is Saturday.

I may yet submit in one or two other categories before tomorrow's deadline. I don't know if my work is ready for "The Show" as they say in baseball, but it really can't hurt to try.

That's all for tonight - lots to do, little time to do it! Thanks for dropping by!

Looking Forward to Arrival of Swarovski Tahitian-Look Pearl Order

Don't forget - there's still time left to get great deals at the Artbeads dollar days sale which ends next Tuesday (Apr. 28th) at 9 am Pacific. The reason I was reminded to mention it was yesterday I had a meeting at work and wore a necklace and earrings with beautiful black Tahitian pearls set in gold that my husband bought me from Na Hoku Jewelers for Christmas a couple years ago. (the earrings below aren't shown with Tahitian pearl, but the style is the same)

I didn't have a lanyard or a bracelet that complemented them - I had hematite and silver, but not gold. I ended up wearing my black onyx and gold-filled bead lanyard as a result.

So when I got home, I went to the Artbeads site to order some Swarovski pearls in "Tahitian-look" so I could make a matching lanyard. Actutally, I want to make a couple lanyards and other matching accessories. I need pieces with spacers and findings in both silver and gold, because my DH had also gotten me a silver pearl set the year before the gold one. Anyway, Artbeads had large hole 14mm Tahitian-look pearls on their sale list and I thought those would make a great bracelet, maybe using ribbon, or cord, instead of beading wire. Can't wait to get them and show you!

I also got more black (matte jet) clamshell beads so I can make more pieces like the Black Sand Beach one (modeled here by the beautiful Tish!) and some pearlized light colors for other designs. I'm gonna be very happy to see that box on the front porch!

Speaking of Tish, a while ago I posted about a necklace that needed a clasp (all the way at the bottom of the post is the picture) and I'm pretty sure it was Tish gave me a link (I can't find the link to where she mentioned it though) to a clasp from Dry Gulch Beads and Jewelry - which I liked (along with a few other things there), and bought. The package arrived today *yay!* and here's the finished necklace on me:

And, a word from our sponsor -

Dawno

Buy Handmade

Wise Rep, Dawno says "Caveat Venditor"

Before I get into the info related to the post title - here are some blogs you should visit soon to see their Artbeads product designs/reviews - they (Artbeads and the bloggers I mention below) are NOT the focus of the caveats above - these folk are upright, serious artists! (I got my Artbead baubles today - squee! & will have my report/review soon). But, on to the fun stuff:

This Artist's Journey picked the Sunset painted canvas pendant, put it on a simply decorated (great idea on how to use crimp covers instead of knots or actual crimps) black cord to focus attention on the pendant.

Sha-sha Handcrafted picked a bronze quote pendant and paired it with chain and Swarovski pearls and crystals for a lovely necklace.

Margot Potter, The Impatient Crafter's intern Avalon Potter made a gorgeous necklace using a different painted canvas pendant, and called it "The Siren Song"

Lisa at A Bead A Day features a jet Swarovski rivoli (and a 'big 'un' too) in her Deco style choker

Feathered Fibers - enameled copper charm (with turtle) and canvas pendant - a stunning two-fer!

Hammi Jammi Jewelry - another canvas pendant necklace - different 'painting' and fun, shimmery necklace to showcase it.

See me, the above bloggers & more, on the Artbeads blogroll, too!

Ok, so what's the title of my post about, anyway? I got this in my email today:

RE: Can we sell your jewelry through our stores?

From: David Thibos

Do you wholesale? I'm interested in selling your jewelry through our network of stores. They'd be a great fit.

We work with buyers from thousands of jewelry stores, specialty shops, department stores, large chains, mail-order catalog companies and Internet shopping sites. We need a larger variety of jewelry they can choose from, hence my email to you.

If you're interested in selling your pieces to more stores visit us at http://www..com We guarantee sales.

Sincerely,
David Thibos
Director of Merchandising
WiseRep.com

Caveat Venditor - Let the Seller (that's us, btw, not Wise Rep) Beware.

At first I got just a little bit excited, but only for about a nanosecond, because I remembered all the literary scams I'd read about on Absolute Write Forum's Bewares and Background Checks and also on the Writer Beware! blog. There are so many predatory people out there using the internet to separate the unwary from their hard earned dollars - and in tough times, stuff like this may start appealing even more to folk who need to bring in a few extra dollars to stay above water.

The email, the promises...all looked familiar. Had many of the "markers" that those publishing schemes had.

Now, I'd have Googled the site anyway. I always check things out to see if they're legit and what the buzz around the net is - and that was quite informative. This outfit has been sending out emails for a couple of years now. There's an up-front fee involved as well as a monthly cost. It began to look a lot like some author representation schemes, as well as 'display site' schemes I've read about - they take your $$ and if they do anything at all for you, it certainly isn't effective nor worth the money you pay them.

In my reading I came across a very interesting thread on the Bead&Button forum site - starts off with a 'testimonial' - "How My Jewelry Saved My Home" but keep reading, there's some great comments later that get to the heart of the matter - Wise Rep probably has a number of folk who troll sites, blogs and forums to post stuff like this to try and get people to believe in them. Problem is, they come off sounding too good to be true - and you know how that saying goes...

Anyway, Wise Rep has also posted a poorly written press release on PRWeb (where anyone can post anything and call it a press release), I'd guess they send employees around the web to defend the "business" and use that PR link as proof...but nobody who has an actual verifiable way to contact them on any blog or forum (lots of anonymous posters or posters with empty profiles) ever posts any supporting documentation that WiseRep has really done anything to get a product into "Target, Macy's, Barns & Noble, and Petsmart". Best post of the thread is the second to last, by Christina - she did her homework!

Dave of Dave's Cupboard posted about them the other day, too - he dug a bit deeper and did a WhoIs registration check - turns out whoever owns WiseRep is hiding behind a proxy domain company. Seems to me, as with those unverifiable blog and forum commenters, if you can't find legitimate street addresses, or incorporation information or even contact telephone numbers for a company, so calls and emails go to real, accountable, people, you should steer clear of that internet "business" - they don't want to be found, or talked to, or accountable.

Anyone else get this email? What do you think? Oh, and if anyone shows up to defend Wise Rep who doesn't have a verifiable profile and thinks they can just regurgitate that press release, well, I'm going to delete those comments, not going to give them any positive Google juice here.

Delights from Earth and Sea & "Moonmist"

I love it when a fun surprise arrives! I have some very cool new beads to play with from Rings & Things just in time for the weekend. I've already got an idea of one piece I'm going to use in a necklace design with some red bamboo coral I had in my stash...going to play around with it some more - decide if I want to add some spacer beads or maybe some stick coral or biwa pearls, but here's a early sneak peak at where I'm starting...The lava stones came from Rings & Things - the roundels are here and the rounds are here.

The colors of the beads are very consistent from bead to bead in my batch, the pitting of the stones varies from fine to coarse. I've got another idea for something using the round ones, riffing off of the way they look like little brown moons...I'll save that for another post and there were two large-ish square stones as well - one almost certainly will become a focal pendant for something - I'm thinking about a bamboo theme...the creative side of my brain is very active tonight!

There were two other items - I'll save them for yet another post, when I've at least got a start on how I'm going to use them.

I forgot to mention that a couple days ago the mail brought to me a purchase I made on Art Fire from glass artist Willow Walker (you can see it here) towards the end of March. The piece is called Moonmist - it's so lovely I can't wait to wear it.

For now, I've put it on a chain made with a 24" length of gold filled hand-made bow link chain from Artbeads that I just added a clasp to, but I think I want to make another chain with some tiny iridescent crystal, faceted bicone beads I have. I've got gold filled eye-pins, and even though they're just an inch and a half long, I'd still be cutting off quite a bit of the pin to make a simple link with just the one 4mm bead - and that cut piece would be too small to use again, I'm afraid. With gold fill being rather pricy, I'm not sure I like the idea of that much scrap left over...I'll probably invest in some gold filled wire and make my own links.

Saturday's Output and a Bead-loving Cat

I sure let this day slip away - did finish a necklace, but also took a very long nap in the middle of the day, watched a couple hours of TiVo'd shows and basically was very lazy.

I'm having another mental debate about whether this piece is really finished, but here's what it looks like now. It's made from amazonite cubes from Artbeads, sterling wire and sterling roundel spacers, also from Artbeads, and hand-crafted sterling silver hammered links from Prolifique's Etsy shop. (the focus on this pic isn't very good, so if you enlarge for detail, it will be a bit blurry).

Our eldest cat, Yogurt, has taken to jumping up on my worktable when he comes into the room - he's in and out all day because this room faces the back yard and has a large sliding glass door I keep open - there's a screen door that keeps him inside. One of these times I'll be quick enough with the camera to get a picture.

He likes to sniff everything, but I'm afraid he might also try to eat a bead or some of the beading wire. He almost started knawing at my beeswax block, but I managed to shut it in a drawer before he could. That cat will eat almost anything.

Today's WIP: Vintage Style Earrings

Haven't accomplished much today - found a TV show on Hulu that I wanted to watch, Damages (shown on FX), and I've been catching up to date online.

I did work on something, now and again, while I was watching. They need a little finishing work - couple drops of E6000 here and there - but I don't think I'll add anymore embellishment.

Filigree, chain and shell earring finding, from Accessories Susan, tiny brass bead from Ohio Beads and some champagne colored (not sure what the official name ofthe color is) Swarovski crystals from the Auntie's Beads "Tucson Mix" I bought almost a year ago.

No photography today - too overcast to get enough good natural light.

Monday Musing on Creativity

Yesterday my husband and I went to see Jonathan Coulton in concert in San Francisco, so no post. Although I did some minor additions to other work and a bit more organizing, no beading of substance was accomplished yesterday. The concert was wonderful though and I saw a couple of folk who are pretty well known in science fiction and tech circles at the concert too.

My husband opened the mailbox just before we got in the car and pulled out Saturday's mail - somehow we just forgot to check it the day before. Waiting in the box were some aquamarine roundelle beads from Artbeads (along with a few other goodies I just had to get). I didn't open them in the car, and we got home late, so I didn't open the box until this morning. I had a few things I wanted to do today outside of the workroom, so I didn't started working with them until fairly late this evening.

I decided to use all sterling bits with the aquamarine, so this will feature sterling beads, different sized sterling roundelle spacers, sterling oval jump rings and sterling 20 gauge wire along with the roundelles and some polished chips I already had. Here is the first six inches:

I don't claim any specific inspiration for this piece from the concert, but Coulton is inspiring - he has gone and done what he loves to do and makes a living doing it. It surely hasn't been easy, but it seems like he's having fun. It was certainly a lot of fun listening (and often singing along) last night. It would certainly be great if all of us who create with our hands could find our audiences and make a decent living with our crafts.

Beading as a Form of Meditation, and a Diet Aid

One of the things I've noticed in the past couple years I've invested in my beading is that focusing on stringing beads, making loops, watching patterns emerge, and now, knotting beads together on silk thread, is very calming and perhaps a bit meditative - although as someone who has never practiced meditation, I can't be sure.

Sure, mistakes happen, but they don't have to be the ruin of a piece or even all that annoying to undo and fix. It's as if narrowing down the world to this bead, then the next bead, is a conduit for the release of everyday stresses into tiny, slow moving, streams of creativity. Sometimes I'll put on background music - instrumental, new-age-y Hearts of Space tunes, or Celtic ballads or even Zydeco (although that's pretty peppy if I'm learning something new, it tends to make me rush a bit). Amazing how the hours roll by, almost imperceptibly.

For example, today I continue making knotted strands, this one using 4 and 6 mm tiger-eye Czech druk glass beads, chestnut brown size FFF Gudebrod silk and 9x6mm Opaque Ivory w/ Half Picasso Roundelles with gold plated pewter bead caps and Gold Elegance gold plated 3mm round beads (link shows the 4mm size). (turns out all of the beads and the tiny bead caps in this are all from Artbeads, silk from Fire Mountain gems, large bead caps from Global Beads (Gold Elegance beads are from my local Michael's).

I lost myself in the process - trying little new adaptations to make it easier to get a good knot, thinking about what I want to do next, learning that about 30" (I should have measured) of string will only give me about 14" of finished beading plus a couple inches at the end for attaching the fastener (which I haven't decided how to do yet). I haven't mentioned my 'needle' for threading the beads. I just used a left over piece of bead stringing (.30mm) wire bent in half. I could have grabbed a needle, but this works just fine and if the silk thread slips off, there's less hassle re-threading than with a needle (with my eyes I have to use a threader, plus re-threading on a needle frays the cord).

I have taken some time out today to write this, and while I was looking up some of the items I used on the Artbeads site, I stopped to write a review of the gold plated pewter bead cap (which should be up in 72 hrs according to the site).

I also went out to do some shopping and picked up a new 'daylight' 23 watt flourescent bulb (same output as a 100 watt incandescent and allegedly uses 75% less energy and will last over 10k hours, also provides a brighter, more natural looking light). I had a 60 watt incandescent bulb in my desk lamp, this new bulb is an enormous improvement.

Another necessity was replenishing my Arizona Diet Green Tea supply. It's pretty much all I drink, and I drink a lot of it, so I buy 6 or 8 gallon jugs at a time. What I haven't done yet is stop for a meal - beading as a diet aid...

Finished Hematite Necklaces and Learing Knotting

With New Year's Day coming up, I got to thinking about glitzy jewelry the other night. I had my box of hematite beads out from the necklaces I made the other day, so I used hematite, silver and the Sterling Effects bead caps that remind me of marcasite jewelry, and a matching Sterling Effects focal in this necklace.

I also have a lot of hematite tube beads in that box, so I used dark gunmetal eye pins to link a bunch of them together in a chain, hung a little flower and vine charm with some hematite 'fringe' on it to make this necklace.

I've been putting off teaching myself how to use thread and knots in jewelry and today seemed like a good day to figure it out. I found some video tutorials on YouTube that were helpful - this one is the one that helped me the most:



I use Beadalon knotting pliers instead of tweezers, gripping handles works better for me than pinching tweezers. After some practicing, I decided to make a knotted necklace to go with an etched tab shell pendant I'd I purchased from Artbeads some time ago. The green beads are chrysoprase colored Czech glass druks, the brown beads are amber shell beads. For stringing and knotting, I used chestnut brown Gudebrod silk, size FFF. All I have left is to decide how to finish it.